In February, Subaru Chief Technology Officer Takeshi Tachimori told Automotive News that the automaker would be drawing heavily from partnerships to engineer the plug-in hybrid.

"For our plug-in hybrid to be introduced this year, we have used Toyota"s technologies as much as possible," Tachimori said at the time.

The plug-in variant will also have "unique styling," Subaru noted, and is set to arrive at dealers at the end of the year, Subaru said. U.S. sales of the Crosstrek, the top-selling vehicle in the subcompact crossover segment, rose 67 percent to 45,728 units this year through April.